The frame box house on the left at the southeast corner of Second and Cherry was the home of King County Sheriff Louis Wyckoff until he died in 1882 of a heart attack, soon after failing to stop a lynch mob from hanging two convicted murderers and an accused one from Henry Yesler's maple trees.

The Wyckoff home and the shops south of it are the middle of three layers. The first layer in the foreground is where basements are being prepared for the buildings that would eventually fill the block bordered by First and Second and James and Cherry. All of these with the exception of the Butler Hotel survive today.

The original print has captions that include the notation "Tent of G.C. Phinney — Broker." On the right the white Phinney (of the ridge) tent rests on stilts near the corner where his Butler Hotel would be speedily built after the fire. Through the 1890s the Butler was considered the city's classiest hotel.

On the horizon are the irregular shapes of Seattle's first residential neighborhood. From its silhouette on the far left we distinguish the James Colman Home at Fourth and Columbia. The elaborate architecture of the Yesler mansion is evident behind the tree on the right. Between them is the tower of the First Baptist Church. That is where Seattle is building a new city hall.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.